Ea Logo

EA did not play a part in last week’s big PlayStation 4 unveiling. There was no sign of John Riccitiello, no quips from Peter Moore, and not even a logo for FIFA, Battlefield, or Madden. Considering the cosy relationship between the third-party and Sony in the past, the company’s complete absence was odd to say the least.

However, the publisher doesn’t believe that we should be reading into it at all. Asked whether its minimal presence was indicative of the company’s diminished interest in Sony’s next generation platform, chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen offered a fairly reassuring response.

"I think [our absence was] more about [the] timing of our own slate, as well as trying to maintain a good balance of power with all of the parties out there and choosing when to unveil certain pieces of software,” he said. "I can say between now and E3 you're going to see a lot of stuff from us and we'll just choose our marketing cadence as to when to start to announce stuff.”

Jorgensen added that EA is eagerly anticipating the arrival of the PS4. “At the end of the day we're very excited about Sony's platform, we think there's a huge opportunity, it's great,” he beamed. “The technical power on the platform is going to allow us to do a substantial amount of things that we've never done before."

But despite the executive’s comforting comments, there have been rumours that the publisher is lining up some kind of exclusive partnership with Microsoft. Apparently, the details are set to be announced during the next Xbox’s reveal event, which is supposedly set to take place in April. Exactly what the deal will entail is unknown, but given the current landscape of third-party development, it’s unlikely to be anything more than DLC.

Last week, rival publisher Activision announced that it will be bringing exclusive Destiny add-on content to the PS3 and PS4. Seeing as the company has worked closely with Microsoft on the Call of Duty franchise over the past few years, it seems like everyone really is switching sides.

[source complex.com, via computerandvideogames.com]